(Minghui.org) Retired teacher Ms. Pei Shanzhen from the Jingan District in Shanghai was arrested for the fifth time on June 14, 2012. Her family received a detention notice the day after, but nothing afterwards, so they appealed to both Shanghai and the National Appeal Office through the Internet on December 6. They complained that the judicial procedure was not transparent and that their Right to Know was violated. This was how the family finally learned that Ms. Pei had been sentenced as early as August.
Ms. Pei's family received the first-instance verdict of four years and six months sent by Jingan Court on December 14. At the end of the verdict it's stated very clearly: if you disagree with the verdict, you can appeal to Shanghai Second Intermediate Court within 10 days after you receive the notice. Thus her family members asked their attorneys to appeal the verdict.
Ms. Pei's attorneys, Mr. Liu and Mr. Zhu, went to the Jingan Detention Center to visit her on the afternoon of December 19 around 3:50 p.m. However, they were told that they were not allowed to meet with her since the Second Intermediate Court had already held the second trial and the verdict from the first trial had been upheld. The attorneys argued that her family only received the notice on December 14, and when the Second Intermediate Court held the second trial, they did not inform her family and deliberately held back all the information.
The attorneys demanded that they and her family members have the right to meet with her. The staff from the detention center asked the attorneys to give them her family members' contact information and claimed they would contact her family themselves. The attorneys refused to give any information and said that Ms. Pei's family members had already asked them to represent them in this case, and if they had truly wanted to contact her family members, why hadn't they asked Ms. Pei herself?
Ms. Pei Shanzhen is a retired teacher from Xiangqun Middle School. She used to have many diseases. She tried different medical treatments, but none worked. Searching for better health, she started practicing Falun Gong in 1995 and her health improved dramatically within three months. A year later, all the diseases she had magically disappeared. After the persecution of Falun Gong started, Ms. Pei kept telling people the truth about Falun Gong and she was persecuted several times. In 2005, she was illegally sentenced to imprisonment for four years. After she was released, she began to write letters to her neighbors about Falun Gong and the persecution. She was arrested again on June 14, 2012.
After she was arrested, her family went to the authorities to ask about her many times, but no matter which office they went to, no one would give them a clear answer. In the middle of July, they went to the Jingan Police Department, but were not allowed to enter; in September, when they went to the Jingan District Appeal Office, the staff there treated them very perfunctorily; in October, they went to Jingan Court, where they were finally told that a trial had been set, so they appealed to the Second Intermediate Court. At the end of October, they called the Second Intermediate Court many times to ask about Ms. Pei, but no one answered the phone. The court has been holding back all the important information. Legal procedures were not followed during the trial, which was held secretly.